Recently, CDNLive China was held in Shanghai. What are the highlights of PCB Track? What are the latest news in the industry? What are the development strategies for Cadence PCB/Packaging? We conducted an exclusive interview with Mr. Saugat Sen, Cadence Allegro R&D Vice President

Figure 1 Mr. Saugat presented Outstanding Paper Award to Spreadtrum

Figure 2: CDNLive China

Figure 3 In PCB Track. Saugat delivered a keynote speech named Enabling System-Level Design with Allegro Technologies.

Interview with Mr Saugat

After the conference, we had the privilege of an exclusive interview with Mr. Saugat. Here are your questions answered:

1, What's the development strategy of Allegro for the future hardware design?

Allegro has been evolving to address the larger issues of system design, aligned with Cadence’s strategy of System Design Enablement. We recognize that the customers’ design challenges today are inter-disciplinary. There is a need to blend implementation and analysis, there is a need to identify manufacturing issues early in design, there is also the need to enable collaboration across mechanical and electrical domains. Our strategy is to collaborate with leading customers across the world, to innovate and leverage all our technology assets to enable solving design challenges that span Chip, Package, Board and the system of multiple boards.

2. How to shorten time to market?

One of the key vectors that we are driving Allegro on is to significantly improve customer productivity. Our concurrent team design solution - Allegro PCB Symphony Team Design solution is just one example of enabling this. We are making ECAD/MCAD co-design seamless, and blending analysis and design closely. It is our endeavor to evolve Allegro to make  transformational improvements in our customers’ ability to shorten the PCB design cycle time.

3, How to ensure the success of manufacturing in the future?

We have multiple solutions to address the needs of design for manufacturing success, including new Cadence Allegro DesignTrue DFM Technology, the industry’s first solution to perform real-time, in-design design-for-manufacturing (DFM) checks integrated with electrical, physical and spacing design rule checks (DRCs). Our experience with customers leads us to believe that we need to identify the issues as early as possible in the design process so as to reduce the end to end PCB cycle time.

4, What do you think of China PCB/Packaging market?

China is clearly establishing its thought leadership in technology across multiple domains. While companies in China has been doing leading edge work in PCB for many years, we expect a similar trend in IC Packaging as well. We are fortunate to be in a position to collaborate with our customers in China. We look forward to partner with them in evolving our technology to serve their needs and our customers worldwide.

Team Allegro

Accelerating product time to market, achieving significantly higher productivity and efficiently working in global engineering teams are the key challenges being faced by designers. Team Design Authoring (TDA) feature of Allegro Design Entry HDL addresses these challenges by providing integrated team design environment. The design can be partitioned at a sheet or block level, and each designer can be assigned one or more blocks or sheets. Any number of designers can work on different parts of the same design simultaneously without interfering with each other. The various design stages can then be combined before proceeding to layout in Allegro PCB Editor. This concurrent design approach makes Allegro Design Authoring extremely productive for large designs. Designers work on the board layout and schematic in parallel.

Cadence Online Support has this Rapid Adoption Kit (RAK) on Team Design in Allegro Design Entry HDL 17.2. The RAK covers:

• Setting up team design environment
• Enabling team design
• Joining team design as member
• Working with designs in team design environment – doing check-in and check-out

Setting up team design environment

This is the first step of team design and involves accessing the user list, granting permission to users, defining Integrator roles, updating libraries and designs and setting up project shared area.

Enabling team design

After setting up team design environment, key task is to enable team design (ETD) for a project and is done by the integrator.

When you enable a project for team design, the following happens:

• Subdesigns are assigned to team members and can be used by designers by joining the project.
• The selected design project is now in the shared area.

Joining team design as member

After the integrator has set up the shared area and assigned ownership rights for sub-designs, designers access the project and start work on the sub-designs they own.

Working with designs in team design environment – doing check-in and check-out

The TDO user interface offers tooltips and icons to help you perform various data management tasks that include check-in/check-out and doing modifications.

Click here for the Rapid Adoption Kit and for the detailed step-by-step procedures on the Team Design functionality, as well as various other aspects that are not covered in this blog.

Also watch the video on Enabling a DEHDL project for Team Design.

Note: The above link can only be accessed by Cadence customers who have valid login ID for https://support.cadence.com

Let me tell you a funny story.

We’ve been working with an outside research agency to write an eBook with new insights into ECAD data management. And based on the findings, I wanted to write a blog about how risky it is to just put your ECAD data on a network or shared drive with a file and folder structure. I thought I had a pretty solid first draft of that blog post written before going away for Christmas.

We were moving from one shared storage system to a new one. I always stored my files in a shared folder so everyone on the team could access and edit them, much like many groups manage their ECAD data today. Since I knew we were migrating systems during the holiday, I made a complete backup of my data locally and slept fine for two weeks while on vacation. 

And when I came back... Gone.

Even today, I still don't know where it went. 

Where Are Your Files, Dude?

Maybe it was the file names, perhaps my backup didn’t complete... I have no idea. But my blog article and my search ads for the eBook are gone. Trust me, the irony of losing a blog post about the risks of poorly managed data is not lost on me.

Oh well, I'll just rewrite the article and ads and have an ironic (I swear this is true, this actually happened and I'm actually redoing the work) story to tell. And believe me, I’ll be using a proper data management system instead of a network drive from now on.

A blog post, some ad copy, not really a big deal.

What if it was design data? What if it was your customer's design data? How long would it take to recreate it? How much shade would your coworkers throw your way if you deleted their data from a network drive and they had to spend the weekend recreating it? How embarrassing would it be to go back to the customer and say you lost their files and needed them again?  At best, you’re spending time on non-value add tasks in looking for and recreating missing data. At worst, you may have a customer data or security concern and you might be spending non-value add time looking for a new job.

I thought I had a pretty fool-proof folder structure and file naming convention setup. I even had a local backup. And I still lost my files. Want to know the scariest part: I don't even know what all is missing. So far, I know I've lost a blog post and some ad copy. But maybe there's more...

They're Right Here, Dude

So here we are, the week after I get back from Vacation. And I get an email from my boss. “I messed up” the subject line reads. He’d been editing a PPT on the network drive, deleted some slides he didn’t need, saved it (overwriting the original), and then realizing his mistake, proceeded to delete the whole PPT.

(Also a true story; I couldn’t make this up!)

No worries. Now that I have a data management system in place, I reverted back to the original and no one needs to know.

Download the Free eBook

Anyways, check out this eBook about ECAD data management. And please, be better about your design data than I am with my Word documents.

When it comes to choosing a design-capture tool in the EDA world, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Depending on a variety of factors, most of all personal preferences, the answer to “Which is the best design-capture application?” keeps changing. Most design tasks can be accomplished in all tools. Some tools might even look similar.

In this scenario, what differentiates one product from the rest is highly subjective. Usability, or ease of use combined with efficiency, is a key determinant. A user might ask: 

• How much do I need to know in advance? How much do I need to figure out?
• How many clicks are needed for doing the same task?
• How well does it work with other applications in the design-to-fabrication flow?
• How easy is it to extract information for different departments?
• Does it include a robust library? Can I extend the available libraries?
• Can I reuse my designs?
• How much of it is automated?

Allegro System Design Authoring (SDA) is a powerful, enterprise-level application that addresses these concerns and brings you the robustness of Design Entry HDL and the lightness of OrCAD® Capture. SDA offers a gamut of new features and simpler, faster ways of completing design-capture tasks. Let’s take a look at the top 10 of the many features of Allegro SDA and how they benefit you, the designer:

This just begins to scratch the surface. SDA not only looks modern, it has built-in mechanisms that are contemporary and smart. Even though the interface and use models are intuitive, SDA Help includes a robust library of technical videos that quickly demonstrate SDA features and an FAQ that addresses the most common questions. When you work with SDA, your design efficiency improves, and you'll realize how the entire PCB design ecosystem gets connected and streamlined.  

The next generation of schematic entry is here.  

For more information about SDA visit:  http://support.cadence.com/wps/AllegroSDA

Using Sensitivity Analysis of PSpice

I was thinking of writing a series of blogs showcasing what all ammunition's a circuit designer may need to deal with any complex circuits today. So, here's the first one. 

When in college, books tell you everything about your circuit. You already know which components are critical in your designs. But, what about when you enter an industry? You have completely new designs that you build or come across and you need to know which components are critical for your measurement goals. The first thing a designer has to be sure of is to thoroughly understand/ know their circuit. 

In the first Tech-Blog of this series, we will take a sample RF Amplifier circuit and perform PSpice Sensitivity Analysis on it. Read more into how this Advanced Analysis capability helps you reduce circuit design costs considerably.

Continue Reading on PSpice.com

Recently, CDNLive China was held in Shanghai. What are the highlights of PCB Track? What are the latest news in the industry? What are the development strategies for Cadence PCB/Packaging? We conducted an exclusive interview with Mr. Saugat Sen, Cadence Allegro R&D Vice President

Figure 1 Mr. Saugat presented Outstanding Paper Award to Spreadtrum

Figure 2: CDNLive China

Figure 3 In PCB Track. Saugat delivered a keynote speech named Enabling System-Level Design with Allegro Technologies.

Interview with Mr Saugat

After the conference, we had the privilege of an exclusive interview with Mr. Saugat. Here are your questions answered:

1, What's the development strategy of Allegro for the future hardware design?

Allegro has been evolving to address the larger issues of system design, aligned with Cadence’s strategy of System Design Enablement. We recognize that the customers’ design challenges today are inter-disciplinary. There is a need to blend implementation and analysis, there is a need to identify manufacturing issues early in design, there is also the need to enable collaboration across mechanical and electrical domains. Our strategy is to collaborate with leading customers across the world, to innovate and leverage all our technology assets to enable solving design challenges that span Chip, Package, Board and the system of multiple boards.

2. How to shorten time to market?

One of the key vectors that we are driving Allegro on is to significantly improve customer productivity. Our concurrent team design solution - Allegro PCB Symphony Team Design solution is just one example of enabling this. We are making ECAD/MCAD co-design seamless, and blending analysis and design closely. It is our endeavor to evolve Allegro to make  transformational improvements in our customers’ ability to shorten the PCB design cycle time.

3, How to ensure the success of manufacturing in the future?

We have multiple solutions to address the needs of design for manufacturing success, including new Cadence Allegro DesignTrue DFM Technology, the industry’s first solution to perform real-time, in-design design-for-manufacturing (DFM) checks integrated with electrical, physical and spacing design rule checks (DRCs). Our experience with customers leads us to believe that we need to identify the issues as early as possible in the design process so as to reduce the end to end PCB cycle time.

4, What do you think of China PCB/Packaging market?

China is clearly establishing its thought leadership in technology across multiple domains. While companies in China has been doing leading edge work in PCB for many years, we expect a similar trend in IC Packaging as well. We are fortunate to be in a position to collaborate with our customers in China. We look forward to partner with them in evolving our technology to serve their needs and our customers worldwide.

Team Allegro

Accelerating product time to market, achieving significantly higher productivity and efficiently working in global engineering teams are the key challenges being faced by designers. Team Design Authoring (TDA) feature of Allegro Design Entry HDL addresses these challenges by providing integrated team design environment. The design can be partitioned at a sheet or block level, and each designer can be assigned one or more blocks or sheets. Any number of designers can work on different parts of the same design simultaneously without interfering with each other. The various design stages can then be combined before proceeding to layout in Allegro PCB Editor. This concurrent design approach makes Allegro Design Authoring extremely productive for large designs. Designers work on the board layout and schematic in parallel.

Cadence Online Support has this Rapid Adoption Kit (RAK) on Team Design in Allegro Design Entry HDL 17.2. The RAK covers:

• Setting up team design environment
• Enabling team design
• Joining team design as member
• Working with designs in team design environment – doing check-in and check-out

Setting up team design environment

This is the first step of team design and involves accessing the user list, granting permission to users, defining Integrator roles, updating libraries and designs and setting up project shared area.

Enabling team design

After setting up team design environment, key task is to enable team design (ETD) for a project and is done by the integrator.

When you enable a project for team design, the following happens:

• Subdesigns are assigned to team members and can be used by designers by joining the project.
• The selected design project is now in the shared area.

Joining team design as member

After the integrator has set up the shared area and assigned ownership rights for sub-designs, designers access the project and start work on the sub-designs they own.

Working with designs in team design environment – doing check-in and check-out

The TDO user interface offers tooltips and icons to help you perform various data management tasks that include check-in/check-out and doing modifications.

Click here for the Rapid Adoption Kit and for the detailed step-by-step procedures on the Team Design functionality, as well as various other aspects that are not covered in this blog.

Also watch the video on Enabling a DEHDL project for Team Design.

Note: The above link can only be accessed by Cadence customers who have valid login ID for https://support.cadence.com

Let me tell you a funny story.

We’ve been working with an outside research agency to write an eBook with new insights into ECAD data management. And based on the findings, I wanted to write a blog about how risky it is to just put your ECAD data on a network or shared drive with a file and folder structure. I thought I had a pretty solid first draft of that blog post written before going away for Christmas.

We were moving from one shared storage system to a new one. I always stored my files in a shared folder so everyone on the team could access and edit them, much like many groups manage their ECAD data today. Since I knew we were migrating systems during the holiday, I made a complete backup of my data locally and slept fine for two weeks while on vacation. 

And when I came back... Gone.

Even today, I still don't know where it went. 

Where Are Your Files, Dude?

Maybe it was the file names, perhaps my backup didn’t complete... I have no idea. But my blog article and my search ads for the eBook are gone. Trust me, the irony of losing a blog post about the risks of poorly managed data is not lost on me.

Oh well, I'll just rewrite the article and ads and have an ironic (I swear this is true, this actually happened and I'm actually redoing the work) story to tell. And believe me, I’ll be using a proper data management system instead of a network drive from now on.

A blog post, some ad copy, not really a big deal.

What if it was design data? What if it was your customer's design data? How long would it take to recreate it? How much shade would your coworkers throw your way if you deleted their data from a network drive and they had to spend the weekend recreating it? How embarrassing would it be to go back to the customer and say you lost their files and needed them again?  At best, you’re spending time on non-value add tasks in looking for and recreating missing data. At worst, you may have a customer data or security concern and you might be spending non-value add time looking for a new job.

I thought I had a pretty fool-proof folder structure and file naming convention setup. I even had a local backup. And I still lost my files. Want to know the scariest part: I don't even know what all is missing. So far, I know I've lost a blog post and some ad copy. But maybe there's more...

They're Right Here, Dude

So here we are, the week after I get back from Vacation. And I get an email from my boss. “I messed up” the subject line reads. He’d been editing a PPT on the network drive, deleted some slides he didn’t need, saved it (overwriting the original), and then realizing his mistake, proceeded to delete the whole PPT.

(Also a true story; I couldn’t make this up!)

No worries. Now that I have a data management system in place, I reverted back to the original and no one needs to know.

Download the Free eBook

Anyways, check out this eBook about ECAD data management. And please, be better about your design data than I am with my Word documents.

Using Sensitivity Analysis of PSpice

I was thinking of writing a series of blogs showcasing what all ammunition's a circuit designer may need to deal with any complex circuits today. So, here's the first one. 

When in college, books tell you everything about your circuit. You already know which components are critical in your designs. But, what about when you enter an industry? You have completely new designs that you build or come across and you need to know which components are critical for your measurement goals. The first thing a designer has to be sure of is to thoroughly understand/ know their circuit. 

In the first Tech-Blog of this series, we will take a sample RF Amplifier circuit and perform PSpice Sensitivity Analysis on it. Read more into how this Advanced Analysis capability helps you reduce circuit design costs considerably.

Continue Reading on PSpice.com

Anyone who designs complex circuits and claims they don’t use the Optimizer on their design is most likely a super-genius with an IQ of 250. Sure, most of you have used the Optimizer on your circuit before. But, have you used it in combination with Sensitivity Analysis? Optimization is just like having infinite monkeys at your disposal. Use it properly and you're The Man, abuse it and you're wasting time and resources.

With the combination of Sensitivity Analysis and Optimizer tools you avoid:

• Prototype revisions (Direct cost)
• Prototype revisions (Opportunity cost)
• An extra week in Engineering (vs using Optimization)
• Releasing an inferior design

In this Blog 2 of the Tech-Series, we will use the Optimization tool on the same RF Amplifier circuit from Blog 1 for shortlisting the critical components in the design. But, now we focus on increasing this design's productivity! Learn how to use these tools together and make the most out of your own designs.

Continue Reading on PSpice.com...

While on a long drive, I like to sing along; say Eye of the Tiger or Johny B Goode or Sweet Home Alabama (even though I don’t live in Alabama), the music being an active part of the journey, especially when I am just beginning the drive, fresh and eager, looking forward to the trekking and wildlife sightings.  Compare this with the schematic design phase. Whistling and nodding while placing the parts: here’s the library and there’s the part.

But sometimes, I just want to listen, say a pipa-based Chinese song or classical music, Eastern or Western, or a charming piece of Jazz; when, for instance, others are napping, or each is lost in his or her own thoughts, staring outside blankly. In the design world, it is that phase where you are intently staring at the design, connecting the grounds and power, contemplating any falls through the cracks, or ruminating on what was missed and what might be missed.

And then, sometimes I want the music to be passive, I am not even aware it is there, a trance track, for instance; at night or while negotiating a difficult stretch or crawling through bumper to bumper traffic. Of course, if I am driving through a wood (and that's what I do quite often), I want to hear the music of the forest; cicadas, the wind, birds, and frogs on a rainy day. Is not this the same wishful design phase where you run the simulation and wait, hoping all goes well; the circuit does not smoke or the Monte Carlo Analysis result is more certain than uncertain and the yield is as expected.

But very often, as in my drives or design cycles, I am jolted up. Probably, the road map app I used was not up to it in the wild or the weather played havoc or, delightfully for me, a deer just crossed the road. As for my designs, most probably, I used a part that cannot be simulated. The part does not have an associated model. And, that’s quite a jolt if you’re in a hurry and there’s a deadline looming.

But worry not. In the design world, at least, you can download and associate a model in the go (pun intended). Thank the Internet for the convenience, freedom, and ease that it gives: search what you want, buy, and download. And, as the title of this write-up says, it’s “simulation for a song” – the process is simple and inexpensive with the added benefit of freedom to choose.

Now, when you install a schematic editor and a simulator, say PSpice Mixed Signal Simulator, the most commonly used models are installed as libraries, the .lib files in the library directory. So, you can open Capture and start designing and simulating immediately. It is as easy as that. But what if you are designing something not so ‘common’, say, a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Drive for the automotive industry or a monitoring device for IoT applications?

That’s why I love the new and simplified Associate PSpice Model interface of PSpice. I search for a model, download it from the Web, and associate with the part in my design. Or, I create a new symbol on the fly, while associating a PSpice model using Symbol Editor.

Now that I think of it, it is easier than me collecting music for my long drives. You just right-click a part in your design in Capture and choose Associate PSpice Model, browse to the downloaded library, select the model, and map the symbol pins with the model terminals.

And, while I get ready for my next drive; I hope, next time you come across a part without an associated model you face it with a knowing smile and a right-click.

Let me tell you a funny story.

We’ve been working with an outside research agency to write an eBook with new insights into ECAD data management. And based on the findings, I wanted to write a blog about how risky it is to just put your ECAD data on a network or shared drive with a file and folder structure. I thought I had a pretty solid first draft of that blog post written before going away for Christmas.

We were moving from one shared storage system to a new one. I always stored my files in a shared folder so everyone on the team could access and edit them, much like many groups manage their ECAD data today. Since I knew we were migrating systems during the holiday, I made a complete backup of my data locally and slept fine for two weeks while on vacation. 

And when I came back... Gone.

Even today, I still don't know where it went. 

Where Are Your Files, Dude?

Maybe it was the file names, perhaps my backup didn’t complete... I have no idea. But my blog article and my search ads for the eBook are gone. Trust me, the irony of losing a blog post about the risks of poorly managed data is not lost on me.

Oh well, I'll just rewrite the article and ads and have an ironic (I swear this is true, this actually happened and I'm actually redoing the work) story to tell. And believe me, I’ll be using a proper data management system instead of a network drive from now on.

A blog post, some ad copy, not really a big deal.

What if it was design data? What if it was your customer's design data? How long would it take to recreate it? How much shade would your coworkers throw your way if you deleted their data from a network drive and they had to spend the weekend recreating it? How embarrassing would it be to go back to the customer and say you lost their files and needed them again?  At best, you’re spending time on non-value add tasks in looking for and recreating missing data. At worst, you may have a customer data or security concern and you might be spending non-value add time looking for a new job.

I thought I had a pretty fool-proof folder structure and file naming convention setup. I even had a local backup. And I still lost my files. Want to know the scariest part: I don't even know what all is missing. So far, I know I've lost a blog post and some ad copy. But maybe there's more...

They're Right Here, Dude

So here we are, the week after I get back from Vacation. And I get an email from my boss. “I messed up” the subject line reads. He’d been editing a PPT on the network drive, deleted some slides he didn’t need, saved it (overwriting the original), and then realizing his mistake, proceeded to delete the whole PPT.

(Also a true story; I couldn’t make this up!)

No worries. Now that I have a data management system in place, I reverted back to the original and no one needs to know.

Download the Free eBook

Anyways, check out this eBook about ECAD data management. And please, be better about your design data than I am with my Word documents.

Using Sensitivity Analysis of PSpice

I was thinking of writing a series of blogs showcasing what all ammunition's a circuit designer may need to deal with any complex circuits today. So, here's the first one. 

When in college, books tell you everything about your circuit. You already know which components are critical in your designs. But, what about when you enter an industry? You have completely new designs that you build or come across and you need to know which components are critical for your measurement goals. The first thing a designer has to be sure of is to thoroughly understand/ know their circuit. 

In the first Tech-Blog of this series, we will take a sample RF Amplifier circuit and perform PSpice Sensitivity Analysis on it. Read more into how this Advanced Analysis capability helps you reduce circuit design costs considerably.

Continue Reading on PSpice.com

Anyone who designs complex circuits and claims they don’t use the Optimizer on their design is most likely a super-genius with an IQ of 250. Sure, most of you have used the Optimizer on your circuit before. But, have you used it in combination with Sensitivity Analysis? Optimization is just like having infinite monkeys at your disposal. Use it properly and you're The Man, abuse it and you're wasting time and resources.

With the combination of Sensitivity Analysis and Optimizer tools you avoid:

• Prototype revisions (Direct cost)
• Prototype revisions (Opportunity cost)
• An extra week in Engineering (vs using Optimization)
• Releasing an inferior design

In this Blog 2 of the Tech-Series, we will use the Optimization tool on the same RF Amplifier circuit from Blog 1 for shortlisting the critical components in the design. But, now we focus on increasing this design's productivity! Learn how to use these tools together and make the most out of your own designs.

Continue Reading on PSpice.com...